News: Sony Xperia 5 II Rumor Roundup — 3 Cameras Plus a Headphone Jack?

Despite making great phones for years, Sony continues to struggle to penetrate the US market. Sales volume has fallen year after year, with 2019 limited to only 5 million units sold globally. To help alleviate this drop, last year, Sony released the Xperia 5, the return to compact smartphones. This year, rumors indicate a sequel is first on their agenda.

Last year, Sony started the year with three phone releases: Xperia 1, 10, and 10 Plus. Only the 1 was flagship-caliber, but with its 6.5" 4K HDR OLED panel, it was priced at nearly $1,000. Hearing the outcry, Sony released the Xperia 5, a smaller phone that uses a 1080p OLED panel for nearly $200 in savings.

Early this year, rumors emerge of a potential sequel to the Xperia 5, known as the Xperia 5 Plus. Its main selling point was five cameras and a headphone jack. However, as the year progressed, no new information leaked about this phone until AndroidHeadlines finally revealed information on what appears to be the actual successor to the Xperia 5, the Xperia 5 II. While some of the specs changed for the aforementioned Xperia 5 Plus, besides the camera, in most areas, it has improved.

Jump to a section: Standout Features | Dates | Storage | Price | Body | Basics | Software | Skin | Display | Performance | Battery | Front Camera | Rear Camera | Audio | Media Formats | Sensors | Connectivity | Security | Box Includes | Accessories

Standout Features

Incorporating many of the smartphone trends of 2020, the Xperia 5 II is one of the best phones they will release this year. Gaming will be amazing on its 120 Hz OLED HDR panel, thanks to Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite Gaming, which helps mobile games take advantage of the high dynamic range and higher refresh rate. It also has a headphone jack, one of the only flagships to include it so you enjoy high-quality audio with wired and wireless headphones.

Important Dates

The Xperia 5 II is rumored to announce on September 17, 2020.

• Release date: Sept. 2020
• Preorder date: Sept. 2020
• Announcement date: Sept. 17, 2020

Storage Capacity

• Storage available: 128 GB
• Standard: UFS
• Expandable storage: yes, microSD up to 2 TB

Price for Everything

• Price: $849

Body

Leaks indicate a similar design to last year, with glass on the back and front cover. The frame will likely be aluminum to keep weight low and durable. We expect Sony to use Corning Gorilla Glass 6 on both front and back cover again, just like its predecessor.

• Frame: aluminum
• Material: glass front and back (Gorilla Glass 6)
• Finish: blue, black, grey

Basics

• Height: 6.22 inches
• Width: 2.68 inches
• Depth: 0.31 inches
• Weight: Unknown
• Dust/water resistance: IP65/68 under IEC standard 60529
• Supported carriers: AT&T,T-Mobile
• Infrared blaster: no

Software

• Version: Android 10

Skin

Sony's skin is mostly stock with a few extra features such as Side Sense and pro video camera app. The version on Xperia 5 II will be the latest version running on top of Android 10.

• Version: Xperia UI

Display

The Xperia 5 II follows the recent trend of high refresh rate display and added a 120 Hz display on the Xperia 5 II. It is a Full HD+ OLED screen with HDR support. They also increase the touch sample rate to 240 Hz so the display looks for touch inputs twice per new frame generated. This means animations are super smooth and the touches are super responsive.

• Screen size: 6.1 inches
• Screen resolution: 2520 x 1080 pixels
• Total pixels: 2,721,600 pixels
• Pixel density: 449 ppi
• Screen type: OLED (flat)
• Notch: no
• Screen-to-body ratio: 80.9%
• Aspect ratio: 21:9
• Minimum brightness: Unknown
• Maximum brightness: Unknown
• Refresh rate: 120 Hz (240 Hz for touch-sensing)
• Color temp: Unknown
• Color gamut: Unknown

Performance

• Memory: 8 GB LPDDR5 RAM
• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 865
• Chip size: 7 nanometer
• CPU frequency: 2.84 GHz (1x A77), 2.42 GHz (3x A77), and 1.8 GHz (4x A55)
• CPU cores: 8 cores (1 + 3 Gold Cores, 4 Silver Cores)
• GPU: Adreno 650
• GPU frequency: 587 MHz

Battery

The Xperia 5 II will support USB PD and Xperia Adaptive Charging. The charger in the box is likely the same 18 W brick, which gives you around 50% in 30 minutes. Sony does a great job of preserving battery capacity by massively reducing charging after 80% and throttling any time heat gets too high.

• Battery: rechargeable lithium-ion
• Capacity: 4,000 mAh, 3.85 Volts (15.4 Watts-hours)
• Wired charging: yes, Xperia Adaptive Charging (USB PD 18 W)
• Wireless charging: no

Front Camera

• Resolution: 8 MP
• Aperture: ƒ/2.0
• Zoom: yes, Unknown digital
• Flash: yes, screen flash
• Image stabilization: yes, Steadyshot
• RAW support: Unknown
• Object detection: yes, smiles, hand
• Formats: JPEG

Rear Camera

The Xperia 5 II doesn't include the five-camera system rumored to be included in the Xperia 5 Plus. Instead, it uses three 12 MP cameras, one primary, one telephoto, and one ultrawide. The ultrawide has a 124° field of view, one of the widest on any smartphone. They are all ZEISS lenses with the T* coating which eliminates undesired light flare and ghosting.

• Types: primary, telephoto, ultrawide
• Resolution: 12 MP (primary), 12 MP (telephoto), 12 MP (ultrawide)
• Sensor size: 1/1.7 inch, 1/3.4 inch, 1/2.55 inch
• Aperture: ƒ/1.7, ƒ/2.4, ƒ/2.2
• Zoom: yes, 3x optical, Unknown digital
• Flash: yes, LED
• Image stabilization: yes, OIS and EIS (primary, periscope)
• RAW support: yes
• Lens cover: sapphire crystal
• Object detection: yes
• Formats: JPEG, RAW

According to AndroidHeadlines, the Xperia 5 II will be the first smartphone to support 120 fps slow-motion video at 4K HDR. Imagine the ability to take high-quality slow-motion videos with a high dynamic range. There is also OIS and EIS for video, known as Sony's Optical SteadyShot.

• Resolution: 720p, 1080p, 4K
• Max frame rate: 30 fps for 720p, 60 fps for 1080p, 30 fps for 4K
• Slow motion:yes, 4K HDR at 120 fps, 1080p at 240 fps, 720p at 960 fps
• Time-lapse: Unknown
• Photos: Unknown
• Zoom: yes, see above
• Flash access: yes, see above
• Image stabilization: yes, Optical SteadyShot (OIS and EIS)
• Object detection: yes, Unknown
• Autofocus: yes, Unknown
• Audio: stereo
• Formats: H.264

Audio

The Xperia 5 II is a blast from the past when it comes to audio. It has a headphone jack and dual front-facing firing speakers. This combination has been seen on a flagship since 2015 with phones like the Google Nexus 6P.

• 3.5 mm headphone jack: yes
• Stereo speakers: yes, front-facing
• Mics: Unknown

Media Formats

• Audio: AAC (AAC-LC, AAC+, eAAC+, AAC-ELD), ALAC, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, DSD, FLAC, MIDI, MP3, PCM, Opus, Vorbis, WMA
• Image: JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, WebP, WBMP, HEIF, DNG, CR2, NEF, NRW, ARW, RW2, ORF, RAF, PEF, SRW
• Video: MPEG-4 Video, H.263, H.264, H.265, VP8, VP9

Sensors

• Sensors: accelerometer, ambient light sensor, barometer, eCompass, side fingerprint sensor, game rotation vector, geomagnetic rotation vector, gyroscope, hall sensor, magnetometer, step counter, step detector, significant motion detector, proximity sensor, RGBC-IR sensor

As far as global navigation satellite systems, the Xperia 5 Plus will likely support GPS, aGPS, and GLONASS. There is no indication for dual-frequency.

• GPS: yes
• aGPS: yes
• Glonass: yes
• BeiDou: no
• Galileo: no
• QZSS: no

Connectivity

• Wi-Fi: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax
• Bluetooth: 5.0
• NFC: yes
• Cellular: nano-SIM
• Port: USB Type C (USB 3.1)
• Other: Google Cast

Security

• Fingerprint scanner: yes, side-mounted
• Face scanner: no
• Iris scanner: no
• Manual authentication: password, PIN, pattern, swipe

Box Includes

• Sony Xperia 5 II
• USB PD Wall adapter
• USB-C to USB-C data cable
• Set of Earbuds